Of Pirouettes and Pressure Cookers
by Dealing With It Now
Summary: Persona 3!AU - Two people in harmony surpass one in perfection. Akihiko/Shinjiro, other pairings. SPOILERS. shounen-ai, mild crack, language. Hard Teen Rating.
1. Prologue: Akihiko

**Dealing With It Now's Author Note**:  
Well hey all. Weird, huh - I'm not posting Transformers fic. :B This is the first prologue of a random collaboration my sister (falsepuppetry) and I decided to write after becoming obsessed with Persona 3. We totes dig Akihiko/Shinjiro, and we were pretty upset with the outcome in the canon - so we _raped_ the canon pretty much. We want fluff and crack for Aki and Shinji, so ta-dah! Here it is. And by the way, I am still writing TF fic, and the first postings of the Moulin Rouge AU will be showing up sometime in the near future.

**falsepuppetry's Author Note**:  
'Sup, y'all. :B Puppet here. Please, don't mind some of the stuff that's gonna show up in this fic; we started it while without internet during a camping trip. It started as a joke, but then . . . well, _this _happened. But we hope it won't be too terrible, yes? Anyway, I wrote this prologue, which was edited by Deailing up there (lulz, we don't need a betaer!) She'll be writing the next prologue (only two, don't worry) which I will help with, too, but I guess that's what a collab means, huh? Okay, I'll stop blathering, here ya go. Peace.

**Of Pirouettes and Pressure Cookers  
Pairings**: Akihiko/Shinjiro, Junpei/Chidori, brotherly!Caesar/Brutus, Minato/Ryouji, protective!Aigis/Minato, Mitsuru&Akihiko&Shinjiro**  
Warnings**: AU, shounen-ai fluff, language, possible ooc, _spoilers_ _for entire game_, dirty-mindedness, lolcows, wtfs, srs bsns**  
Summary**: "Two people in harmony surpass one in perfection."

* * *

_"You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand  
Over your friend that loves you"  
Julius Caesar_, Act I Scene II

---

All he'd ever learned from movies and media was that it was obviously very white and probably wet, but what he'd never assumed was that fire extinguisher foam was _really cold_.

The situation Akihiko now found himself facing wasn't necessarily extreme, but needless to say, embarrassing. He'd managed to start a kitchen fire – while trying to make a lemon meringue pie.

. . . How does that even work, in any sense, _ever_?

The cooking class stood as they stared at the still-smoking, charred "pie" that sat on the counter before them, shocked into silence and covered in freezing white foam. Shinji stood next to Akihiko and Fuuka, the only one who seemed uninterested with the near-calamity. The fire extinguisher was still in his hand, aimed at the failure of a pie like it would spontaneously combust in his face any second. It made Akihiko wonder if Shinji had meant to get the foam on all the other students before actually hitting the pie.

Fuuka was alternating between staring at the pie and her upperclassmen friends, the look of horror on her face displaying the only thought that was running through her head plainly on her face; '. . . ._Really?'_

It had all started not that long before, in late October.

Shinji had been admitted to one of the area's Kirijo-run hospitals (free of charge, thanks to a certain string-puller named Mitsuru) after receiving a near-fatal bullet wound from Takaya on the fourth, while protecting Ken. Luckily, they had gotten him to the hospital in time to stabilize him and have the bullet (well, _bullets_, as he'd been shot twice) successfully removed. Unfortunately, the entry wounds had done enough significant damage that unless the doctors did something, he would have been left paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life.

Obviously, that wouldn't have been pleasant, and it didn't please Akihiko one bit, either.

After a long discussion between the doctors and the original SEES members, it was decided that if Shinji wanted to regain his mobility he'd have to agree to neural repair, followed by extensive physical rehabilitation. He would basically be left the same way he was before he was shot, albeit maybe a bit stiff and sore after heavy physical strain, but honestly, it was Shinji; he was a tough bastard that would probably wave the discomfort away with a well placed 'hmph'.

The fact that his best friend would be able to walk again was a relief to Akihiko – he was glad that Shinji would be living in the first place – but what the doctors discovered during the procedures would just prove to be another fortunate godsend.

Apparently, not only had the repair given Shinjiro a chance to walk again, but the doctors also notified Akihiko and Mitsuru of something that they had also been able to remove from his system – they had called it an unidentifiable toxin, but the two senior SEES members had known exactly what the doctors had found.

Those pills . . . the ones Shinji had received from Strega . . .

About a week after the neural procedures, Shinjiro had entered rehabilitation after the doctors had marked the repairs as complete successes. It was true that many a time Shinji had to bite hard on his tongue to avoid scandalizing the doctor with his vocabulary. It was even more frequent that he had to resist the urge to storm out of the room, and his body was causing him so much pain that he couldn't even stand up out of that big, soft, ridiculously comfortable couch, so he eventually (and reluctantly) just decided to deal with it to make everyone happy, "or whatever."

"He's free to go, Kirijo-san."

Mitsuru nodded in acknowledgement at the young nurse posted at the Receptionist's Desk. "Thank you."

The nurse just smiled in response as Mitsuru, Akihiko and Shinjiro turned to leave the hospital. After three hours of signing paper after paper, Akihiko finally felt the triumph of being able to shove that stack of release forms into somebody _else's_ hands and leaving the hospital, with its overly white linoleum floors, its disgustingly-colored yellow walls and its blindingly bright fluorescent lights, the metallic scent of blood and cleaning bleach lingering through the hallways…

He figured that Takeharu probably paid _a lot_ for the jobs he provided, seeing how he had so many workers in that hospital. Akihiko couldn't imagine working there, and he almost pitied Shinji for having to spend almost an entire month in the pasty place.

Aki let Shinji lean on his shoulder as the three of them made their way out of the hospital, Mitsuru opening the door for the two of them before exiting herself. Shinji was still a bit stiff when it came to walking – he wasn't limping, per se, more of just trying to keep the least amount of weight on his legs for a bit. He had been given a cane, but he had absolutely refused to use it, saying that having to lean on anything was humiliating enough without making himself look like an "old bag" while doing it. By leaning on Akihiko's shoulder, people would be able to see that his difficulty was only temporary as opposed to permanent.

". . . and the food; you would think with the huge-ass salaries these guys get paid, they could at least put a little thought into what they're feeding their patients. Once a week I was served what they like to call ramen. It's even worse than that insta-shit you eat at home, Aki," Shinji ranted as he and Akihiko awkwardly hobbled over to the private vehicle Mitsuru had alerted that would bring them to Port Island Station. "And the protein shakes – is that the kind of protein shit that _you_ eat, or was mine worse?"

"I can't say, Shinji, I've never tasted a hospital-provided protein shake," Akihiko answered lightly as he slid into the car next to his best friend. He had to say, Shinji's rant was proving to be amusing. "How about once we get home, I'll let you try some of mine, and _you_ tell _me_ which is worse."

Shinji rolled his eyes, scowling, "Like hell. The minute I get home, I'm making myself some _real _food, and there ain't nothing you two can do to stop me."

Shinji then took to staring out the window angrily, grumbling something about quality and Hagakure ramen.

Nobody conversed much during the rest of the way back to the dorm. Akihiko and Mitsuru exchanged a few words on the monorail regarding the upcoming full moon on November 3rd.

"Mitsuru," Akihiko started. He quickly glanced over to Shinji, who had dozed off in the monorail seat next to him; his expression while asleep was only slightly less irritated than it had been just previously. "I still don't really understand."

Mitsuru looked up from the magazine she'd brought with her for a minute, before sticking her thumb in it to mark her page and setting it on her lap, "You don't understand what?"

Akihiko sat back in his seat, crossing his arms and watching the daytime scenery outside the opposite window of the monorail speed by. "I wasn't told in detail, about how the doctors were able to reverse the effect of those pills. They just told us that they had discovered an unidentifiable toxin and that the neural repair was able to reverse their effects."

Mitsuru closed her eyes in thought, humming in acknowledgement.

"Ever since they informed us of that certain discovery, I've come up with a number of theories as to why a physical procedure would reverse the damage done by a mind-attacking drug," she started, crossing her legs and allowing her foot to bob unconsciously in space as she thought her words through.

Akihiko arched an eyebrow, "And?"

The redhead frowned, "Well, one idea I had was what if the drugs actually _didn't_ attack the mind? What if they targeted the user's physical body? This then had me think that if a Persona is a direct amplification of a person's psyche, then wouldn't a Persona be negatively affected by the damage done to a physical body?"

"Hm," Akihiko set his elbows on his knees, head in his hands, thinking out loud, "then if Shinji was trying to weaken Castor by taking the pills, he was actually weakening himself? He had to damage himself to keep his Persona at bay?"

"Precisely," Mitsuru answered with a sigh.

The silver-haired senior hummed again, massaging his temples tiredly. He sat back up, and the rest of the trip passed in silence.

"_For your Persona to have a weakness, the Persona-user has to have a weakness... and I don't."_

Upon returning to the dorm, the three of them had been greeted with the usual warmth by the fellow SEES members. Akihiko was relieved to see that Shinji wasn't necessarily displeased, just obviously uninterested. When somebody said something like "We're so glad you're back," he simply replied with a quiet "Yeah" or "Thanks" before going back to playing with Koromaru on the floor. After pleasant greetings and one or two short conversations, everybody became basically oblivious to the fact that Shinji existed in their dorm again, losing themselves in their own little conversations.

Akihiko noticed that the only person that seemed to dwell on the fact that Shinjiro had returned was Minato, who stood leaning against the wall near the bulletin board, blaring his music into his ears while he watched Shinji play around with Koromaru. He couldn't tell if it was troubling or amusing their squad leader, seeing that the junior had a vague smile playing on his lips.

As people came and went from the Iwatodai dorms to meet up with friends or shop at Paulownia, not once did Akihiko leave the dorm, preferring instead to say he had some training to do or class reading to finish. The actual reason he had stayed, though, was so he could keep a dedicated eye on Shinji. Like the brunette had said, he was busying himself in the kitchen. The boxer was surprised that he could actually move around enough to be able to cook himself one hell of a bowl of ramen. He figured that Shinji was just a stubborn bastard and, despite any pain, he would do anything to not have to eat more 'protein shit'. He was _really_ determined to get his quality ramen. He still wasn't in the condition to go on his own to Hagakure and probably didn't want to anyway. Besides, his own cooking was just as good as Hagakure's, if not better.

The night died down quickly; Minato deduced that going to Tartarus that night would be an (obviously) bad idea, so he, Junpei and Ken decided to hit the hay early. Yukari and Fuuka had taken one last-minute shopping excursion to the Be Blue V; Aigis had gone into standby in her own room. Koromaru was asleep on the floor, and Mitsuru had gone up to her room to study a bit. After some prodding, Akihiko had convinced Shinji to head upstairs and get some rest, leaving Gekkoukan's Golden Boy on his own in the lounge. He was lying on the couch, trying his hardest not to fall asleep as he stared at the ceiling in thought.

Ultimately he failed, and ended up nodding off on the couch, his recently patched-up boxing gloves left lying on his stomach.

Shinjiro Aragaki had been dismissed from the Port Island General Hospital on November 1st, 2009, and at the time, Akihiko had no idea what the next two months would hold for him.


	2. Prologue: Shinjiro

**Dealing's Author Note**:  
HEY AGAIN. Here is the second prologue of this monstrosity of a fic. I wrote this one, and puppet edited. Just saying, Shinjiro is a bitch for me to write. I've been writing a lot of Optimus and Starscream lately, and Shinji is this very kind of screwed up mix of the two, I found. Hopefully this isn't awful.

**Puppet's Author Note**:  
'Sup. So, yeah, there might not be a lot of people waiting for this currently, but we'll just post it for random onlookers to lawl at. :D Some of the stuff I disagree with, like the random serious tone near the end, but other than that, this prologue is pretty lulzy. So have fun. :B (Dealing interjects: I... can't write humor.)

**Of Pirouettes and Pressure Cookers  
Pairings**: Akihiko/Shinjiro, Junpei/Chidori, brotherly!Caesar/Brutus, Minato/Ryouji, protective!Aigis/Minato, Mitsuru&Akihiko&Shinjiro**  
General Warnings**: AU, shounen-ai fluff, language, possible ooc, _spoilers_ _for entire game_, dirty-mindedness, lolcows, wtfs, srs bsns**  
Chapter Warnings**: Shinjiro's vocabulary, angst  
**Summary**: "Two people in harmony surpass one in perfection."

* * *

_"We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all."_  
Eleanor Roosevelt

---

His LED alarm clock told him that it was one-thirty in the morning, and his tired body agreed whole-heartedly. Why the hell couldn't he go back to sleep?

After about an hour of staring at the ceiling, Shinji decided that maybe taking a short walk downstairs would be enough to convince his head that he was exhausted. The thought of climbing the stairs on the way back up was mildly discouraging; hopefully the couch in the lounge was unoccupied.

Clinging to the rail the whole way down, arriving on the first floor only took probably about twice as long as it should have, he thought dourly. Being temporarily crippled did not sit well with Shinji. He was used to being a physical powerhouse, and being demoted to 'liability' was difficult to deal with.

Once back on a flat plane of floor, he was able to move more easily. He proceeded down the hall uninterrupted until a bright flyer hanging from the bulletin board caught his eye. It hadn't been there before his admittance into the hospital, and he had been too preoccupied earlier to notice anything different about the dorm. The lime green paper was eye-catching, even in the dim light of the very early morning. Fucking fluorescent, really.

Too interested to _not _read it now, he pressed the flier down to see it clearly. The scripted text boldly advertised some dancing class, being held for free by that French exchange kid running about at Gekko. Shinji couldn't remember the guy's name, only that he always seemed to smell like fucking glue. What the hell.

He figured that one of the girls had been asked by whats-his-fuck to consider taking the class, but he couldn't believe any of them had then taken the offer seriously enough to post the flyer on the oh-so-important SEES bulletin board.

It definitely wasn't Mitsuru, and he doubted it was Fuuka. Maybe it was Yukari. He was too tired to try to deduce anything else – who wanted to know what was going through a girl's head anyway? They were crazy, all of them. Well, Fuuka wasn't all that bad. But the rest of the female population – fucking psychos.

He turned around, squinting in the muted light and just barely able to make out a figure still and asleep on the lounge couch. Damn. He was going to have to pick; fight the stairs again, or try to fall asleep in the opposite couch and risk waking whoever the hell was there up with his fumbling and therefore have to _interact_. Great.

Preferring the first of his two options, he began walking back towards the stairs through the kitchen area. The light was dimmer towards the opposite end of the dining room where there were fewer lamps, so he was actually caught off guard when he only noticed somebody sitting at the table once he was right on top of him.

"Oh," they both said simultaneously. Shinji kept his voice low, keeping in mind that someone was sleeping on the couch. He did not want to talk to anyone he didn't have to at now-two-o'clock in the friggin' morning.

"Uh, S-Shinjiro-senpai…" Ken started, pushing his chair from the table. He began to stand up, but Shinji gestured stiffly for him to relax. "W-What are you doing up?"

"I should be asking you that." Shinji answered gruffly, yanking one of the dining room table's chairs out and collapsing into it unevenly.

"Well," Ken started, uncomfortably. "I haven't really been able to sleep for a while..."

The senior arched an eyebrow indifferently, "Oh, yeah?"

Silence fell once again over the kitchenette, neither of them knowing exactly where the conversation was headed. Shinji, despite being irritable due to lack of sleep, had to admit that this discussion was inevitable.

But why did it have to happen at two AM?

"I s-should probably go-" Ken tried again to get up from his seat, but Shinji cast him a sidelong glance. The younger boy knew when to take a hint, and promptly sat his ass back down.

"You know, when I was your age I didn't have parents, either," Shinji watched to gauge Ken's reaction. The kid gave a jerky nod. "I don't usually bring it up – too many people just waiting to pity you when you want nothing to do with them, but you know all about that, don't you?"

The smaller boy held his tongue. His eyes seemed to be everywhere except on Shinji.

After a brief pause, Shinjiro scoffed gruffly, "Tch, listen. You're just a kid. To even consider ending your life – that's fucking stupid. You haven't even started living yet. I was supposed to die out on that street – there was nothing left for me to give up on. For some reason, that destiny got away from me, and I have to learn the same lessons over again – trust me. Don't fuck it up the first time, 'cuz it's unlikely you'll get a second chance."

Ken's shoulders stiffened apprehensively, "Y-you're lucky to be alive. If the Dark Hour hadn't been ending… and those pills weren't dealt with-"

The older brunette managed to laugh dryly, "Those pills. That's something else. Those Strega bastards talk about living in the moment and not giving a damn about the future. Easy for them to say, when they don't have a future to look forward to – I'll make sure of that. _You've_ got your whole life ahead of you, so don't waste it."

"You should take your own advice."

Ken averted his gaze to the kitchen entryway in dead beat shock, but Shinji simply frowned.

"Heh, I thought you were asleep," he sighed, aggravated. He turned his head slightly as Akihiko dropped tiredly into the adjacent seat, stretching to crack his spine against the back of the chair. _'Man, I miss doing that,'_ Shinji thought irritably, noting how sore his back still was.

The silver-haired senior grinned lopsidedly, "I was. Remind me to never fall asleep on the couch – can't be good for your back." He absentmindedly fiddled with his recently patched-up boxing gloves in his lap, the sound of leather grazing the table peppering the silence every few seconds.

Ken squirmed in his chair. Shinji noticed the younger boy's discomfort and huffed.

"Hmph, go to bed," he said with quick breath, stiffly standing from the dining chair and idly wiping his hands on his pants.

Amada blinked once or twice, his mouth agape. Even Akihiko seemed a bit surprised by Shinji's prompt command. He'd expected the awkward silence to continue much longer than it had.

The smaller boy clasped his hands behind his back and cast his gaze to the floor, fidgeting before gathering up the right amount of courage to look the older in the eye. "Er . . . w-what?" he asked sheepishly, blinking again.

"Don't act stupid, go to bed," Shinji waved the kid away dismissively. "Staying up too late too often will make you a liability in Tartarus, and God knows we don't need another one of those," he grunted stiffly.

Akihiko frowned sleepily, but didn't interrupt as Ken nodded with a determined 'right' and ran back upstairs. "You didn't have to send him off," the silver-haired boy shrugged after he was sure that the kid was out of hearing range. "You two were having a real, one-sided heart-to-heart from what I could tell," he observed aloud, his slight grin noticeable in his voice.

"Tch. Whatever," the brunette shrugged, pushing himself away from the table. Unknown to him, the rug beneath the table was snagged in his corner, and as he pushed backwards, the entire chair fell backwards with him still in it.

Akihiko grimaced and fluidly pushed himself up from the table, making a sound as Shinji crashed loudly onto the floor with a dazed 'fuck'. "Oh shit, Shinji. You okay?" he asked, quickly maneuvering towards his prone friend.

"Fuck, Aki," Shinjiro groaned, his face contorted into a pained scowl. "Yeah, I'm fine, fuck - that hurt."

The silver-haired teen reached to help the brunette back up, his hand lingering on the other's arm for a moment longer than necessary out of concern. Shinji was quick to shrug both Aki and the offer of help away with an indifferent 'hmph'. His other hand rubbed at his temple tiredly.

"God, I could use some sleep," he grumbled, scowling further as Akihiko bent down to stand the chair back up. His body protested against the lack of external support, the pain of his recent meeting with the floor still ringing through his aching muscles and bones. "You going to bed?" he asked, trying to sound as unfazed as usual.

Akihiko nodded slightly, "Might as well try to get a few more hours sleep." His eyes narrowed somewhat, eyeing Shinji as he clasped the top of the chair tightly in an attempt to support his sore limbs. "You going to be okay getting up the stairs?"

Shinjiro growled, "Tch, I'm fine. Stop worrying."

"Don't give me that," Aki objected, his voice hard. Shinji was just able to see Akihiko's temper flare in his quicksilver glare. "I'll worry about you if I damn well want to, especially after…"

The silver-haired senior paused, his eyes lowering away from the other's gaze. "I came close to losing you, and that won't happen again – I learned my lesson with Miki. So don't tell me to not worry – because I do worry," he said sheepishly.

Shinji rolled his eyes with a slight 'hmph'. He shoved himself away from the table and past Aki, heading towards the couch. "Change of plans. I'm sleeping on the couch," he grunted dismissively, ignoring the other's protests.

Fucking Aki. He hated him for worrying. All the things he had to think about, and the bastard goes and tells him that _he's_ fucking _worried_.

"Why the hell do you do that?" Akihiko all but shouted, seeming to forget the other residents asleep upstairs. He reached to grab Shinjro's arm, but the other shrugged him away, still walking to the couch. "I'm your friend; don't be pissed because I care – that's not fair to either of us."

Continuing to ignore the other boy, Shinji made a bed out of the couch, closing his eyes without another word. He shifted so he wouldn't be lying on his back, turning to lean on his right side towards the back of the sofa.

Aki knew when enough was enough, and Shinjiro listened to him walk away and back upstairs. It was just moments before he could hear movement above him, indications that Akihiko was shuffling to bed. It was still a few hours until daybreak, and he was probably waking up early as usual.

Still unable to fall asleep, Shinji listened as the sounds upstairs ceased. He groaned, not wanting to shift again as he was still exceedingly sore from his tumble.

Staring at the upholstery of the couch, he mulled Akihiko's words over in his head. He wasn't pissed off. He was frustrated – _why_ did everyone, particularly Aki, care?

He gripped at the sofa's exterior covering, his arms protesting. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to let someone care, maybe let Akihiko think that he didn't mind. Maybe he would get the message that Shinjiro wasn't really worth the effort.

His mind, finally convinced that his body was exhausted, began to fog away sleepily. Thoughts fell away, and he felt his muscles relax. The tension fled and numbed the pain temporarily. For the first time since returning to the dorm, Shinji was able to fall asleep soundly and completely.


End file.
